Bibleless Nations
Among the mountains and valleys of the Shan state of Myanmar live the Golden Palaung. Over 200,000 Golden Palaung speak the Shwe dialect of Palaung, which comes from the Mon-Khmer language family.
The Palaung are able to grow a number of crops in their area and they trade for additional foods with their pickled tea (also called laphet). This exclusive novelty is made by fermenting tea leaves over a long period of time and then preparing them to be eaten as a salad.
In addition to their special pickled tea, their traditional houses are quite distinct, and very impressive. They are raised off the ground and can house as many as six families. Some houses are nearly one hundred feet long! In spite of all this room, there is little if any division for each family in the house. Consequently, it is not surprising that single family dwellings are now becoming the norm.
Most Golden Palaung practice Theravada Buddhism. In addition, they continue to practice their traditional animistic religion. A distinction in their animistic belief is that of “nat worship.” Nats are the spirits of inanimate objects. If the people experience hardship, they believe it is because the nats need to be appeased by offering items such as betel or tobacco. Offerings are also given by a shaman at ceremonies during marriages, births, and deaths.
Summer 2022
The 2000 census lists 45,000 ethnic Phunoi living in north-central Laos. Phunoi is one of eighty-four languages spoken in Laos. It is a Tibeto-Burman language which reflects the Burmese rule in Phunoi history. Phunoi is classified as a Loloish language which reflects a Chinese origin.
Experts believe there are 240 ethnic groups in Laos. In 1981, they were officially divided into five groups according to language. However, the former three group system is still commonly used, and it divides according to geographic location: lowland, hillside, and mountaintop. The Phunoi belong to the mountaintop group. The mountain forests furnish animals for hunting and food for gathering. Rice and corn are grown by the slash-and-burn method.
The official name of the Phunoi changed to Sinsali in the 1990s. The literal meaning of phunoi is “little people,” and Laotians now use this word in a disparaging manner. All tribal people are considered a low class of society and are referred to as phunoi.
Though many Phunoi have embraced Buddhism, the majority practice ethnoreligion. Ethnoreligion combines animism and ancestor worship. The spirits of animism are placated for favor in growing food or restoring health. The spirits of ancestors are invoked for protection and guidance. There is no Phunoi Bible to tell this people the story of the one true Creator God.
Located in the heart of the second largest island of the Philippines is a tribal people who cling tenaciously to their ancient customs and traditions. The Bagobos are a people steeped in ethnoreligion. They combine spirit worship, ancestral worship, and nature worship into a religion that is strict in ritual and full of fear. They are fiercely territorial, suspicious of outsiders, and very resistant to the efforts to assimilate them into the other cultures and languages around them. They believe to do so is to deny their religion and entire way of life.
The Bagobo are one of the largest groups of indigenous people of southern Mindanao. Historically a warring tribe, the Bagobos raided neighboring villages and offered human sacrifice to their deity, Pamulak Manobo, until the practice was forbidden under Spanish rule. They are largely agricultural, and rice is the staple of their diet. This diet is supplemented with hunting and fishing. The planting, cultivating, and harvesting of rice is deeply tied to religious rituals. Planting coordinates with the movement of the stars, hoping for the good-will of their god of the growing season. During harvest, the leader of their tribe (the Datu) will give an offering to the “spirit of the harvest.”
The Bagobo speak their own distinct dialect. It is an unwritten language with no Scriptures, therefore the
80,000-100,000 Bagobo souls are without God’s message.
Imagine a dark place where superstition and fear rule peoples’ lives. It is a place where daily activities must be done in a prescribed manner or risk the ire of demons and the spirits of ancestors. There are no Christians, no Scriptures, and no hope. This is reality for the 123,000 Luobohe Miao (a group of the Hmong people cluster) who live in the mountains in southwest China. They keep to themselves in their own remote villages and live by farming.
The Luobohe are ethnoreligious—they are unified by both their ancestry and their animistic religion. Jewry is another example of ethnoreligion, especially in the Old Testament. To be a Jew was to be both a descendant of Abraham and a follower of the law of Moses.
The Luobohe language is tonal with three distinct tones that distinguish words. It is largely unwritten, though a Latin alphabet has been recently proposed. This language desperately needs a translation of the Bible. The Word of God can cross borders and go to places where missionaries cannot go.
Global Recordings Network recorded six Bible stories in Luobohe. You can listen to The Lost Sheep at https://globalrecordings.net/en/progra. Someone was the human instrument that produced this recording, the only glimmer of light for the Luobohe. Will you be another human instrument by praying for them? Pray for someone to take them the the Gospel, for heaven’s forces to bind the evil one, and for the light to shine brightly.
Tourists gather yearly to see the Yörük caravans depart their winter coastal homes for their summer pastureland in the Taurus Mountains. Excitement abounds. Sheep and goats walk single file, bells ringing. The huge loads of tents and equipment carried by camels are covered by colorful Turkish rugs. Women in their long, flowered skirts and young people dressed in their colorful best lend an air of festivity.
This 1,000 year way of life is vanishing as modernization infringes on traditional grazing rights and the younger generation look for an easier life with jobs in the city. In 2020, there were only eighty-six migrating families, and most of them used trucks and tractors to transport their animals. This yearly migration was disrupted by covid travel bans, and it will be difficult to overcome the loss of livestock.
The Yörük (name derived from the Turkish verb meaning to walk) are a Turkish tribal group numbering 463,000. They are Sunni Muslims, but Shamanistic practices of the past, such as warding off evil spirits, still exist. Their language is a dialect of Turkish (Balkan Gagauz Turkish) and has no Scriptures.
Yörüks are honorable with strong moral principles. They are frugal, but also warmly hospitable, offering visitors foods like butter, cheese, yogurt, and perhaps meat. The Yörük value cleanliness and freedom but will never be clean from sin and have true freedom without Christ.
Spring 2021
The Brunei Malay people are a native Malay ethnic group that live in Brunei, a little-known nation on the island of Borneo. The country is tiny (a little larger than Delaware), but enjoys the wealth from oil resources. The Brunei also live in Malaysia, Canada, and the United States. The in-country population is 184,000; the worldwide population is 556,000.
Their language, also called Brunei Malay, is different in sound from Malay. Brunei Malay is the language of everyday communication for most Bruneians and is a sign of a speaker’s wish to identify himself as Bruneian. Brunei Malay is currently replacing the minority languages. There is no Bible, and no other known Christian resources in this language.
Brunei’s government is a monarchy with a line of sultans dating back to the 14th century. The current sultan became the absolute ruler in 1967. As such, he is both the head of state and the head of government. He is also at the head of the official religion, Islam, which he promotes by building mosques. (It is estimated that Brunei has more mosques per square kilometer than any other country in the world.) He also protects Islam by making it illegal to proselytize or for Muslims to convert from Islam.
The future is uncertain. Rapid depletion of oil reserves is an economic concern. The helpless state of lost souls, however, is of greater concern. How shall they hear? Pray for laborers!
Winter 2020-21
The Tama people live in eastern Chad and western Sudan. Statistics vary according to source; reports include a population of anywhere from 170,000 to 300,000. The Kimr tribe, numbering 169,000, belongs to the Tama people group and speaks the same language.
Tama (also known as Tamok, Tamot, or Tamongobo) is a language in which tone, stress, and length can all change the meaning of words. It is the language spoken in homes. It is unknown if Tama has ever been written or is only spoken. There are no Scriptures in this, the people’s heart language.
The Tama are sedentary and most of them are farmers of an assortment of crops, including cereals. They also raise livestock such as goats and camels. Because Chad is a landlocked country, they do not always have a long rainy season which means that drought is a serious problem. Gardens are the main livelihood and source of food. If the rains do not come, they may not have any crops that year. This is compounded by fights with neighboring people over the desperately needed land. There is much unrest, and one never knows when bandits or rebels will strike.
Islam is the main religion of the Tama with 95% claiming to be Muslim. The other 5% is made up of ethnic and animistic religions. Because of their extreme poverty and sense of hopelessness, alcohol is a real issue for many Tama. When will they hear the great news of the Gospel? Who will bring them hope? Will you go?
Fall 2020
Bob and Liz PattonSuriname is situated on the northern coast of South America. Its history is almost as diverse as the vegetation that grows in its tropical climate; Suriname was first explored by the Spanish in the 16th century, settled by the British in the mid-17th century, and became a Dutch sugar colony in 1667. Indigenous populations and escaped African slaves were pushed into the interior of the country where they established their own tribal languages and cultures.
Since Suriname didn’t gain independence from the Netherlands until 1975, the national language is Dutch, but because Suriname has been influenced by so many countries and cultures, an English-based creole language called Sranantongo is spoken by a majority of the population as either a first or second language.
Along with linguistic influence, the Dutch also brought Moravian influence (followers of John Huss) in the early 18th century who translated the New Testament and Psalms into Sranantongo in 1820. Unfortunately, this translation was not very precise, and its language is now archaic. In the 1970s, a Bible translation group (SIL) began working in Suriname to translate the New Testament into Sranantongo from the Critical Text. In 1998, Robert Patton, MD, DD finished his translation of the entire Bible from the Received Text a few years before the Critical Text (SIL) New Testament was completed.
To date, Dr. Patton’s translation has sold over 20,000 copies: enough to put the complete Bible into the hands of one in twenty-five people. To God be the glory!
Summer 2020
The ancient home of the Aymara is perched twelve-thousand feet above sea level on the Altiplano, a high plateau near Lake Titicaca in the Peruvian Andes. Although life is challenging due to very poor soil and a region susceptible to both drought and flood, the nearly three hundred thousand Southern Aymara have found a way to sustain a vibrant culture. Fulfilling social obligations is very important in these communities, which are usually composed of large family groups. Each person takes part in the husbandry and agricultural tasks that are central to their lifestyle.
To a casual visitor, it may seem the Aymara people have already embraced the Gospel. However, while the name of Jesus and the symbol of the cross are common, these people are just a step away from paganism. Four hundred years ago, they were first introduced to Christianity by Catholic missionaries. In response to these new teachings, the Aymara simply blended Christian terminology and stories with animism, creating a folk-religion that worships both Jesus and natural “spirits.”
The Southern Aymara have no Bible to lighten their darkness and expose the error of their beliefs. While the Central Aymara do have a Bible translation, its dialect is so different from Southern Aymara that it is considered to be an entirely different language. There is no Bible translation in process for the Southern Aymara. Meanwhile, they continue to live and die deceived and in darkness.
Spring 2020
The 750,000-900,000 souls comprising the Bajau or Sama people are dispersed throughout the Malaysian section of Borneo and are thought to have originated in the Philippines. There are various Bajau languages, and they are mutually unintelligible. While some of the Bajau have Bible translations or Gospel resources, at least one of them—the West Coast Bajau people— have no known Gospel resources: no Bible, no New Testament, not even a John and Romans! Although there is now a translation process underway, it could be years before its completion. Meanwhile, more than 250,000 souls remain Bibleless.
The West Coast Bajau (WC Bajau) were once sailing nomads, but have since settled along the northern and western coasts of Borneo, adapted to an agricultural lifestyle, and adopted Islam. Because of language mixing between the vernacular and the national language (Malay), “pure” WC Bajau is increasingly rare. Written WC Bajau existed only informally until the last thirty years when linguists, trying to encourage literacy in both Bajau and Malay, began working on formalizing an orthography. Both of these factors—a transitioning spoken language and a young, if not underdeveloped, written language—only serve to complicate Bible translation work among the WC Bajau.
Please pray for a reliable Bible translation for the WC Bajau as well as the development of literacy and other Bible resources.
Winter 2019-20
The Pamiris of Central Asia have never had their own country nor lived independently of surrounding powers. The majority of Pamiris live in an area called the Badakhshan Autonomous Province which covers parts of Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
Pamiris are linguistically, religiously, and culturally distinct from their Tajik and Afghani landlords. They are a highly misunderstood people group and face great prejudice and discrimination. This is primarily due to a difference in the practice of Islam.
Most Pamiris practice Ismailism which is viewed negatively by their Sunni neighbors. Pamiri women are free from some of the stricter Islamic laws. They do not have to wear burkas or hijabs, are encouraged to get a good education, and are allowed to work outside the home. Although dating is not acceptable and marriages are usually arranged by a maternal uncle, women are not expected to marry before age eighteen.
It is unclear how many distinct languages/dialects exist in the Pamiri language family. A BBTI graduate working with this people group says there are at least seven. There are only three teams currently working to translate the scriptures into Pamiri languages.
Fall 2019
Hidden deep in the mountains of southwest China, the Bunu people are like a treasure waiting to be found. Many of the small Bunu villages are inaccessible by any type of vehicle. The Bunu went into hiding when they were forced to flee the Hunan valley due to violent persecution from the Han and Zhuang peoples.
The kinship system of the Bunu is matrilineal, meaning they trace their descent through their mother’s line, not their father’s. Bunu women are the leaders of their homes; when marital problems arise, the man may go back to his family and the woman may find another husband. If this occurs, the man has no rights to any property.
Bunu legends passed down for generations have a worldview based on a chaotic world before their god, Pan Hu, built the heavens and created the earth and hint at a worldwide flood.
Since the Bunu have little contact with the outside world, it is understandable that they are the largest people group in China without a single known church. A significant hindrance in reaching the Bunu is the language diversity. Currently, there are no Scriptures in any of the Bunu language groups, leaving over 450,000 people without the Word of God in their heart language! What will it take to reach these people? Someone must penetrate geographical, cultural, and language barriers with the powerful Word of God! Will it be you?
Summer 2019